1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic device, a host apparatus, a communication system, and a recording medium. In particular, the present invention relates to an electronic device implemented in an apparatus that communicates with a host apparatus via a network, a host apparatus that communicates with the apparatus via the network, a communication system that includes the apparatus and the host apparatus, and a recording medium storing thereon a program that causes a computer to function as the host apparatus.
2. Related Art
In recent years, there has been a great increase in the use of electronic devices such as semiconductor chips. For example, electronic devices are used as computing apparatuses or storage apparatuses in computers or cellular phones. As a result, electronic devices are being used in a variety of different environments.
The characteristics of a semiconductor chip decay with use. Furthermore, each individual semiconductor chip has different characteristics. Therefore, when designing a semiconductor chip, the characteristics are allowed a prescribed margin of error that takes into account characteristic decay and individual variation. When performing tests on the semiconductor chips before shipping, a judgment is made as to whether the characteristics of each semiconductor chip are within the allowable margin of error, as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-3216. This testing may also include a test of the rate of decay of the semiconductor chip.
With this testing, however, the rate of decay of the semiconductor chip or the degree of variation can only be measured under constant test conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately know how much the characteristics will decay or what the distribution of the decay will be when the semiconductor chip is used in a variety of different environments. Furthermore, it is difficult to accurately determine the margin of the allowable error when designing chips in the future.